Thursday, June 7, 2012

Every small business starts with an idea.
Whether it’s an idea to sell a product or provide a service, that first notion
sets the wheels in motion. The very next step should be some type of market
research.

Suppose you had the idea to open a franchise
ice cream shop business but wanted to find out how successful will it be in
your neighborhood? A short drive through your prospective neighborhood will
show you if there are any other businesses like the one you want to invest in.
It can also give you an indication of the kind of foot traffic you might be
able to expect. This is a form of market research at its simplest level.

There are other benefits of market research
that you should be thinking about to help your business.

What
the customer wants

For a business to grow and become
successful there needs to be some form of market research going on. Not only is
this important to size up your competition but it can go a long way towards
understanding what your customer wants.

If you open up that ice cream shop and
feature a chocolate dip special in a neighborhood that is dominated by vanilla
lovers then you’re not going to make a lot of sales. That’s an extreme example
but if you take the time to do a decent market research survey, it can reveal information
that you may have not known.

It could be the specific type of items that
a customer would be interested in, whether that’s special offers, different
varieties or a better shopping experience. Having a market research project
reveal those types of issues can allow you to adjust your business and bring in
more customers.

Types
of market research

Just because you are a small business with
a limited start-up budget doesn’t mean you can’t engage in a market research strategy.
There are many forms of market research that you can tap into. At the high end
is a market research firm dedicated to delivering you a comprehensive analysis
of all aspects of your business. This is accomplished by a combination of phone
polling, focus groups and online surveys.

Conducting an online survey is probably one
of the most affordable options when it comes to market research. With this type
of campaign you can ask visitors to your website to take a survey or send out
the survey to a list of customers who have signed up for an email.

Always remember that you’re inviting them
to share their opinions to make your business stronger. In other words, empower
them to share their opinions.

As you gather your market research data,
only you can decide whether or not to act on that information. However, if the
numbers provide you with clues as to why your business might be stumbling, then
it’s easy to see that using market research can turn your business around and
point it towards a more profitable future.

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